Bill Responding To Election Day Problems Wins Final Approval

In response to disastrous Election Day preparation in Hartford that kept two polling places open late last year, the state House of Representatives on Monday gave final legislative approval to a bill that establishes a training and certification program for Registrars of voters - and creates a process for their removal in cases of extreme negligence of duty.

The House voted 126-20 to send the bill to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's desk. Last fall, Malloy was among the people who tried to cast early-morning votes in Hartford but were told they could not vote when they first arrived at the polling place. The voter registry lists had not been delivered on time - one of many problems that arose from disorganization, dysfunctional work relationships, and the lack of a chain of command at Hartford's Registrars of Voters Office, according to a city investigative report released this year.

The bill does not do anything to address perhaps the most serious problem identified in the report: That even months after the Election, an accurate vote count was not available.

"There's literally nothing we can do to fix that," Secretary of the State Denise Merrill told reporters after the House vote. Merrill explained that the law requires her office to certify the vote as of the third week in November, "and those numbers are the final numbers."

"There's absolutely nothing we can do about that," she said. The problems in Hartford last fall did not change the outcome of the election, which is when "it becomes critical," Merrill said. "That was not the case, but we still haven't gotten to the bottom of what the real number was."

Still, Merrill praised passage of the bill, which she said "brings some accountability to the system."

The bill establishes a certification process for all registrars of voters, who also would have to go annual training. Training is not currently mandated for registrars, but state Representative Richard Smith said "training was already being done" in almost all cities and towns throughout Connecticut. None of Hartford's registrars attended the last optional training session held by the Secretary of the State's office before the election.

State Rep. Dan Carter said he was concerned that "we are setting a precedent where a duly elected official can be removed for something like failing to maintian a certification."

Merrill, however, said that was not the case. The bill gives her the power to temporarily remove a registrar who has not completed the certification process. The bill establishes a multi-step process for permanent removal that goes through the State Elections Enforcement Commission, the Attorney General, and finally to a Superior Court judge. Merrill said that process would only be used in "much more complex, much more extreme circumstances" of misconduct.

Other provisions in the legislation allow 16 and 17-year olds to work as ballot clerks, move the mail-in voter registration to closer to the election, and allow local elections officials to use online voter registration to sign up new voters on Election Day.